I’ll go along with this.
Remember “Kids are never bad at a good time”.
My brother and his wife raised three kids (one more than they intended).
Those kids never heard ‘No’ until they got into the real world. The ‘bonus baby’ was spoiled to the point of pretending not to notice that she smoked. Right. Central WI in January and you suddenly (as in every30 minutes) need some fresh air, after which you reek even more.
When the oldest had a serious girlfriend, not only was he allowed to have her in his room - she actually moved in - and the parents gave them the master bedroom.
Only the middle kid has ventured into the world. The baby became a serious ‘snot-nosed bitch’ and got as far as entering some second- or third-rate college.
She lasted about 2 months.
Last I heard she was working at the local Target store as a clerk.
Maybe, if she had been slapped down when she started her ‘I am me. The universe can adapt.’ bullshit, she might have had a chance. ‘Entitled’ doesn’t begin to describe this brat.
So Denny’s and IHOP would qualify as “diners” then (they all have the counter, some are 24 hours, and they serve breakfast for dinner)? Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard anyone espouse the idea that there is an actual non-imaginary distinction between a “diner” and a “restaurant”, much less that there is any sort of general consensus on what that distinction is. Some places may actually style themselves as a diner, up to and including it in the name of the establishment (i.e. “Papa Smurf’s Diner”, or whatever), but the thought that anyone would actually say to themselves “X establishment is a diner, but not a restaurant” or vice-versa, and then base their patronage decisions on this imagined dichotomy blows my mind. Probably a topic that deserves its own thread, but I am too lazy to compose one, at least at the present moment.
Age 13-16ish… difficult age to be around in general… if not whining-- something else.
OP, she’ll grow up eventually. Sorry your meal sucked.
I’m known for speaking up. I probably would have said, “You don’t like eating at Diners and I don’t like eating with bratty kids… so if you sit in the car while your mom and I enjoy our lunch then both of our problems are solved.”
My mother would’ve told me the same thing.
If I whined (and I did occasionally at that age), I’d never do it in front of company. I would’ve done it the minute we got home. It would instigate a bickering match with my mother that would go off into tangents until both of us were too exhausted to keep talking.
For me the key thing is how your friend behaved afterwards.
Did she call you and apologise?
(It’s possible her daughter came along due to a change of plans - or was behaving well that morning.
But once the whining has spoilt the occasion, your friend should behave like a friend.)
Brats are why one’s vehicle should have either roof racks or a trunk.
The second sentence is a direct response from the implementation of the first sentence.
Thank you for good parenting.
Good, because you already redlined the Durpometer with this post.
Yes.
Now that you know what people think a “diner” is, would the utterance "I don’t want to eat at a diiiiiiiiiiiner! Who wants to eat at a diiiiiiiiiiiiner? I want to eat at a restaurant!"make no sense at all? Everyone here would agree that a diner is technically a restaurant, but the above quote, while not pedant-worthy, is perfectly understandable. The speaker wishes to dine at a non-diner restaurant. If I heard that, I would offer an alternative that would exclude Denny’s, IHOP, and Waffle House if I wished to indulge the request.
It’s the parent’s job to teach the kid that other people exist and matter. Thanks to parents being picky about which “battles” are worth fighting at age two, many kids are still acting like toddlers at fifteen.
A fifteen-year-old will be eligible to legally operate a motor vehicle unsupervised in less than a year in many states. Most CAN control themselves just fine, but when the parent jumps to serve them, why would they change a thing?
The parent addressed the behavior right away–by requesting that the adult consent to a different eatery.
Clearly the child had no concern for any future “negative consequences” and the child’s mother did not appear to think anything unusual was going on. Now I have no problem with the child’s opinion about where to eat being taken into consideration, but that should only happen if the child acts like a person and speaks up respectfully and politely. At the absolute minimum, the parent should have insisted that the child rephrase its request politely and without whining before considering yielding to it.
Teens being obnoxious is certainly nothing new, but now they do it directly in front of their parents, who more often than not scramble to comply. I guess when you grow up getting spanked or smacked for misbehavior and decide you don’t want to treat your kids that way, you don’t know any other tools, so you do nothing.
I think the correct response was “I don’t want to eat in a restauraaaaaaaaannt! I wanna eat in a dinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnner!”
All seriousness aside, better to go with the Grumpy Old Lady role and snap sharply at the 15 year old “be quiet, young lady - your mother and I are talking” and go on talking with the mother as if nothing had happened.
Being a Grumpy Old Lady (or in my case, a Grumpy Old Man) has advantages - you can get away with stuff. But you never try to justify or explain it - you just do it. Don’t appeal to the mother - she isn’t (apparently) in control of the situation. So you have to be the grown-up, and that includes keeping the children in their place.
Now get off my lawn - I have to be at the diner for the Early Bird Special.
Regards,
Shodan
I always thought diner was synonymous with greasy spoon–and greasy spoons often have small menus. Are they not synonymous?
I can verify that I’ve been to a New Jersey diner that had a large menu. I only ate there once so I don’t know if it was a “greasy spoon” but it definitely looked and felt like a diner…fast, no-frills service, lots of chrome, perhaps “diner” was in the name.
Or, ideally, an ejector seat.
To the OP, I don’t think you’re a grumpy old lady at all. The kid sounds like a snot and I would have been quite put out had I been in the same situation. I’d like to think I would have said something, in a manner that sounded *just *joking enough, like “want me to call a whaaaaaambulance?” or something. But, I don’t know how long your friend and her daughter have been in your life. It would be much harder to say anything if you weren’t fairly close with mom and had spent some time with brat girl. Also, as others have said, a large percentage of teenagers are cunts (okay, my words, not theirs). I know was. Not in the same was as the girl in the OP, but I had my ugly behaviors. Hopefully she’ll grow out of it and in some years you can kid her about what a brat she used to be.
Restaurant is an umbrella term and includes many categories, one of which is Diner. Another of which is Fast Food. If someone said “I don’t want to go to Burger King, I want to go to a real restaurant.” that would be a completely normal and understandable concept. So too, with a Diner. Diners serve food under a fairly consistent style. If you don’t want “diner food” there’s nothing odd about saying so.
That said, the kid sounds like a whiny brat, and I’m desperately hoping to cull the whiny behavior in my own son (7) before it gets too far along. The only thing is that getting in between mom and kid is a problem, if the mom doesn’t back you up after the first whine, then anything you do to get back on track is an attack on her parenting.
To be fair to the child, she is a human being with desires and preferences, and perhaps the mom shouldn’t have decided where lunch was going to be eaten without discussing it with her. Even if that discussion is “We’re eating wherever Sahirrnee wants to eat and you’re going to have to suck it up.” It has to happen before the whining starts, ideally before you pick up the person you’re going to lunch with. It’s not like you planned to go to the Diner for a week because it’s finally Rhubarb pie season.
Wait, did you suggest a specific restaurant that sucked? I can understand being annoyed by a teenager who was whining and not going to your first choice of place, but I don’t know why you couldn’t suggest a second choice that wouldn’t be terrible. Unless you live in an area with very few choices.
because why should she have to change to accommodate a whiny (and lying) kid?
She shouldn’t have to change to accommodate a whiny kid. Whiny kids are annoying, and I’m glad that so far very few of my friends have kids, and none of them are teenagers yet. But in my mind, Sahirrnee’s choices were:
[ul]
[li]Just get right back out of the car so to not be stuck with the annoying teenager[/li][li]Tell the mom she’d rather go to the diner and not give in to a teenager’s whining[/li][li]Offer a choice of restaurant that isn’t Sahirrnee’s first choice but is still okay with some decent items that she likes[/li][li]Offer a choice of restaurant that sucks and she won’t like[/li][/ul]
I could understand any of the first three options, I don’t understand why she would pick the fourth option.
And I don’t know if the teenager is lying, she might hate diners and be okay with telling that to her mom and mom’s friend, but just willing to go along with her boyfriend with whatever he wants to do.